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MANSFIELD — Grace Episcopal Church will host about 70 youngsters who will plant vegetable gardens and help distribute 10,000 pounds of produce from the Cleveland Food Bank to those in need at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Anyone in Richland County who meets the U.S. Department of Agriculture federal guideline is eligible to receive free food. People are asked to bring identification and a piece of mail with their address on it, the Rev. Joe Ashby said.

The Spring Youth Event for the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio is themed “From Seed to Table,” and the youth will stay the entire weekend at the church, where they will conduct worship services Sunday morning. Youth will prepare their own food and church members are helping to feed them, too.

The event will run from 6 p.m. Friday to noon Sunday with students in grades 7 through 12 from about 25 parishes in northern Ohio participating, he said.

“They’re going to be looking at different aspects of feeding, including we’re going to be putting in some raised beds for community gardens, to raise produce for the food pantry,” Ashby said.

Ashby said the church plans to offer an extra food giveaway once a month in the evenings, enabling the working poor to come. Service group and youth group members are needed to volunteer at the evening events and may contact him at the church.

“We really want to expand the population we serve, those who are working and can’t come to the food pantry from 9 to 11 a.m.,” he said.

Each Thursday morning the church opens its doors to the food pantry at the Bowman Street location. He said it takes 150 volunteer hours to prepare for the weekly food pantry giveaway.

“It’s a community co-op,” he said, noting volunteers in many cases are the same people receiving food.

Young, old, black and white flow into the basement where they’re greeted with a bag of cookies and offered coffee. First-time guests register by showing proof of income and telling how many people live in their home. Everybody receives at least enough food to serve three balanced meals to four people for at least one day. Those with bigger households get more food.

Thursday was no exception. Gwen Hughes, 80, was pulling her cart with food uphill Thursday along Bowman Street to catch the RCT bus on Park Avenue West. Volunteer Sherman Jones came to her assistance.

“I’ve been coming for five years,” said Hughes, who noted food assistance helps her tremendously.

Clarence Beans and his wife, Melinda, come every week.

At 75, Beans said he lives in an apartment nearby and appreciates the food assistance, which this week included a ham or turkey, eggs and oatmeal, soup and ravioli, vegetables, bread and milk or juice.

This week’s treat was trail mix.

“It’s a good thing for the people who need it,” he said. “It helps out. She’s on disability and I’m on retirement. She goes over about 8 o’clock each Thursday,” Clarence, also known as Brother Beans, said as he visited with people on the sidewalk.